Nucleus-halogenated methylbenzyl alcohol is a useful substance as a raw material, an intermediate or the like for manufacturing medicines, agricultural chemicals, etc. For example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 97251/1981, it is described that esters formed by the reaction with cyclopropanecarboxylic acids are useful as substances having excellent insecticidal action.
As a process for preparing nuclear fluorinated methylbenzyl alcohol, there has been heretofore disclosed, for example, a process comprising allowing a pentafluorobenzyl alcohol derivative, an alcohol moiety of which has been protected, to react with methyllithium to convert the derivative into a 4-methyltetrafluorobenzyl alcohol derivative (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 256244/2000), a process comprising halogenating 1,4-bis(hydroxymethyl)-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzene to obtain 4-(halomethyl)-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzyl alcohol and then hydrogenating it to derive 4-methyl-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzyl alcohol (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 512319/2004) or a process comprising converting 4-methyl-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzylamine, which has been obtained by hydrogenation of 4-methyl-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzonitrile, into 4-methyl-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzyl alcohol (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 512320/2004). However, it is hard to say that these processes are industrially useful because expensive reducing agents are used, their steps are long, etc. Further, a process for preparing 4-methyl-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzyl alcohol by hydrogenating a hydroxyl group of one side of the aforesaid 1,4-bis(hydroxymethyl)-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzene has been also disclosed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 173455/2002).